MacGregorSailors.com

I've always been curious as to how far cruisers will go in a certain size vessel. I for one, have a 21' sailboat and often wonder how far it will take me...

So here is my question:what is the the longest distance you've sailed in the smallest boat you owned!?

The Curious Sailor

http://curioussailor.blogspot.com/

Perhaps clarification is in order, distinguishing between sailing and cruising. Our longest pure sail on our 26X is probably only 35 miles or so. We've made open water crossings of up to 80 nautical miles, and are currently on a 6,000 mile cruise on the Great Loop. Much of this travel, however, is by necessity, motoring.

Chinook wrote:Perhaps clarification is in order, distinguishing between sailing and cruising. Our longest pure sail on our 26X is probably only 35 miles or so. We've made open water crossings of up to 80 nautical miles, and are currently on a 6,000 mile cruise on the Great Loop. Much of this travel, however, is by necessity, motoring.

I guess I mean either or.

How far are you into the great loop? I've been reading about that trip and yes many say it's mostly motoring. Still sounds like a great experience that is on my list of things to do... Safe travel


http://curioussailor.blogspot.com/

In the summer of 1964 I had the pleasure to sail in the Newport-Bermuda Race. We sailed our (the Navy's) 44-ft yawl, Alert, from Cape May, New Jersey to Newport, Rhode Island, and from there to Bermuda. After the race, I joined the crew of another of our 44-ft-ers, the Dandy, and sailed back to the Chesapeake Bay and eventually, to Annapolis. The Alert was a wooden boat with no engine whatsoever, and the Dandy was a newer fiberglass yawl with a small diesel inboard. We did motor the Dandy part of the way back up the Chesapeake. Other than that, it was all sailing. The trek from Newport to Bermuda was a four-day starboard tack. Longest tack I have ever experienced and can even imagine. My right bicep was noticeably more developed when I got to Bermuda from the long watches at the helm. The helm was the traditional wooden one with spokes for steering. I still prefer those wheels, even imagine finding one for my Mac some day. It was a great experience. As for a my Mac, I haven't really put in a lengthy sail, but I have motored about 300 miles in a round trip river transit on the St. Johns River from Sanford to Jacksonville and back.

Very cool Herschel!

My second or third outing in our X was a solo river cruise. I began at the head of navigation of the Cumberland River and went to the end. Then I crossed over to the Tennessee River and went to its beginning. That was 1062 miles and took 22 days. I wish I had had more experience before starting the trip. I would have slowed down and enjoyed it more. Because I didn't know about the boat, the speeds, the distances, the time, I pushed too hard and missed a lot. But, I didn't know how long it would take and if I could do it alone.

Ken

First, "Thanks"! Curious sailor. It is a grand memory.
Second,

My second or third outing in our X was a solo river cruise. I began at the head of navigation of the Cumberland River and went to the end. Then I crossed over to the Tennessee River and went to its beginning. That was 1062 miles and took 22 days. I wish I had had more experience before starting the trip. I would have slowed down and enjoyed it more. Because I didn't know about the boat, the speeds, the distances, the time, I pushed too hard and missed a lot. But, I didn't know how long it would take and if I could do it alone.

Ken, I am originally from Tennessee and often cross the I-24 bridge over the Tennessee River near the Nickajack Damn on my way to family functions near Jasper. I have wondered about making the Tennessee River trip. How difficult is it to figure out the locks, learn to deal with large commercial traffic, and finding marinas?

Herschel,

It turned out to be nothing really. The tows were no problem, even in narrow sections. It was amazing how much they churned the water, bubbles and swirls long behind them. I don't remember big wakes, they weren't going that fast. Empty tows were the worst for wakes. The bigger tows were slower but the churning was greater.

The locks were interesting. All except the first one on the Cumberland River are available on demand. The first Cumberland lock, and I don't remember the name, had to have one day notice. A guy drives there to operate it. Sometimes I had to wait for other traffic or because the lock was last used in the wrong direction and needed to be cycled to get to me. I was lucky and only waited a couple times, never more than a half hour or so. The locks all have floating bollards. You tie on to one and they rise or fall with you. I used a stern fender, one on the forward cockpit stanchion and one on the aft cabin top stanchion. To tie on I used a dock line with a loop at one end. I put the loop over the winch and used a boat hook to loop the line over the bollard. Then I would wind the line around the winch and pull it as tight as I needed it. That's all. One line.

There was lots of debris at spots and i had an oil scum mustache before I got to Nashville. Fuel, marinas and docks were plentiful.

Go for it.

Ken

The tows were no problem, even in narrow sections. It was amazing how much they churned the water, bubbles and swirls long behind them. I don't remember big wakes, they weren't going that fast. Empty tows were the worst for wakes. The bigger tows were slower but the churning was greater.

Ken,
I understood there was a "protocol" of sorts in dealing with the tows---in terms of a special frequency on the VHF radio to monitor and asking the towboat how he wanted you to pass. My wife and I took a cruise on the lower Mississippi last year, and the captain said that the down river traffic had right of way over upriver traffic due to reduced handling options related to current. Any of that surface with your transits?

Yes, I'm sure there is some sort of system to work things out among the tows but they largely ignored me. My theory, and probably their's, was might makes right. I just stayed out of their way. I did call a few for passing instructions just to be nice and to see if it worked. I would say, "Northbound Tow, this is S/V Last Flight. 1 to 1" and they would say "Roger". That's all. I don't remember any calling me. (1 to 1, port to port - - 2 to 2, stbd to stbd)

One thing I would mention if you are going out of your known area. I had taken all the COE charts and converted them to SeaClear format. I used them to plot my progress but the view was very narrow. I would recommend anyone taking a river trip to take a road map that included the area to be traversed. That would have helped me visualize my progress in terms I better understood at that time.

Ken

Newport (cal) to Ensenada (mex) race. 120 miles +/-. Five Times. Best Time 24 hours 30 minutes. Worst time 42 hours. Amazing how small a 25 ft boat can get with a crew of four after 42 hours. It's an amazing sight to see 600 boats in the starting area at one time. One year we had tied up the night before the Tequilla Derby race in Newport. Walking on the dock we spotted a crew who were loading up for the following day start. They had enough junk to mount a trip to Antarctica, including six cases of beer. I ask why so much beer. The reply, "H-ll, we have four guys on the crew!" Made sense to me They probably ended up sailing to San Francisco. Also Santa Barbara to King Harbor. Marina Del Rey to San Diego\. Ventura to Marina del Rey. Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz Island. Used to sail to Catalina and drop anchor for a week at a time. Would recommend this to anyone. Crusin', boozin' and snoozin'

Regarding distance along on the loop, we're on Andros Island in the Bahamas presently, 2,800 miles from our start point in Grand Haven on Lake Michigan.

And warm, most likely

Chinook wrote:Regarding distance along on the loop, we're on Andros Island in the Bahamas presently, 2,800 miles from our start point in Grand Haven on Lake Michigan.

My longest trip so far has been the 1300 miles from Florida's west coast to Gerorgetown in the Bahamas and back to Florida's east coast single handing. It was mostly motoring from the west coast to the Berry's in the Bahamas with a fair amount of sailing only from there to Georgetown but still some motoring due to the predominate east winds.

On the return, north of Georgetown in the Exumas I meet a guy, Tony, with a 30 foot Gimini 3000 and he was anal about sailing on and off anchor and everywhere even in light winds. He got me hooked on it also to almost the same degree. So from Black Point in the Exumas to West End on the west end of the Grand Bahama Island, the point of departure back across the Gulf Stream I pretty much sailed the whole way. So for this 400+ mile stretch of the trip I sailed all of it except maybe 10-12 miles. I was able to sail on and off anchor more and more and only motored for a few miles into a head wind to get into Fox Town before it got worst and in and out of a couple cuts or on/off anchor if there were other boats. Sailing day after day became quite rewarding and I got to the point I just hated to start the outboard. I had hoped to sail back across the Gulf Stream but conditions weren't favorable for that and I had a narrow window to go in between storms so took it and motored across.

Ruth and I also tried to sail the length of Lake Powell (about 150 miles) We would sail each day and mark our position and then motor to an anchorage and return to where we left off the day before and sail from there up the lake. We made it about 95 miles, but it took 18 days with the flaky canyon winds and also a couple days of 50+ mph winds where we didn't move and I got hurt resulting in us quitting at Bull Frog/Halls Crossing before finishing the 150 miles. I want to return and sail the remaining 60 miles or so and hope to do that this year,

Sumner

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1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

Four days and nights to go 250 miles from La Paz to San Carlos in 1973 in a 23 foot boat and then another 80 miles from Guaymas to Muelge in one 24 hour day sailing through the night. (Actually, 80 nautical miles in one day on a 23 foot boat is pretty darn good - that was the best leg).

A MAC 26M could probably cover the same distance in three days because the wind blows steady day AND night in the Sea of Cortez - you make just as good time at night as day and the breeze is WARM and when the moon is out you can see EVERYTHING even at night It's great sailing.